It’s been a long time coming, but Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord finally comes out of Early Access today. This marks the game’s official release after a long series of updates and improvements. However, this likely isn’t the end on further updates, as TaleWorlds Entertainment seems to have more plans for the future. At the time of writing, a celebration livestream is currently airing on the developer’s official Twitch channel.
Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord entered Early Access back in March 2020, and garnered a fairly strong player base. TaleWorlds Entertainment worked especially hard to provide daily updates and fixes during its first couple of weeks in Early Access.
Of course, since it started out as an Early Access title, Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord hit a few bumps along the way. From storyline progression issues to technical problems, the game definitely had its rough patches. Then there were more specific problems for long-term fans of the series. There was, and still is, a lot of love for Mount & Blade: Warband, a game that Bannerlord was trying to improve upon in every aspect. It’s difficult to uproot the majority of a community and give them a product that isn’t technically finished, but Bannerlord has mostly done that at this point.
Bannerlord is officially out of Early Access
These days the argument of whether Bannerlord is truly a better game than its predecessors has largely been put to rest. Since its initial release, the improved visuals, gameplay, and balancing have helped the game come closer to reaching its true potential. As far as its single-player content goes, Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord is in a good spot. The game also has the fortune of being fairly unique in the genre. It’s hard to find another title that similarly mixes together strategic, action role-playing gameplay. This alone is likely a key element of the game’s success. As time goes on we’ll hopefully see even more improvements come to Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord.
